Affirmative Action the Best Way to Achieve a Colorblind Society

Nov. 07, 2006— -- Supporters of a ballot initiative in Michigan -- Proposition 2 -- have waged a tough campaign to ban the use of race or sexin employment and college admissions.

Its defenders say they want a colorblind society.

But intruth, affirmative action is one of the best ways toachieve it.

There are at least five reasons for defendingaffirmative action.

First, it has helped integratethe United States, bringing millions of women into positionsof authority and providing role models for countlessyoung people. It has been a factor in theAfrican-American middle-class reachingunprecedented levels in recent decades.

Affirmativeaction has diversified the nation's work force,provided a leg up to the underprivileged and allowedpeople to learn from those who have differentbackgrounds.

Second, a ban on affirmative action will havedivisive and exclusionary consequences.

Ten yearsafter former University of California's Regent WardConnerly led the effort to abolish affirmative actionthrough California's initiative process, only 96blacks gained admittance to UCLA -- or 2 percent of thefreshman class -- in 2006. That's a step in the wrongdirection.

The third reason to defeat Proposition 2 is that foesof affirmative action have targeted the wrong program.

If we want to talk about fairness, why not abolish theadvantages that certain students -- athletes andchildren of alumni, for starters -- receive on theircollege applications? Why not do more to promotecollege loans for low-income students of allethnicities and races, and expand initiatives thatretrain the unemployed so they can find new jobs?

The fourth reason we should support affirmative actionis that it implicitly recognizes that racism is stilla fact of American life. There is racism in politicsand people of prejudice in powerful positions in ourdemocracy.

In Tennessee, for instance, the Republican NationalCommittee offered innuendo about black men and whitewomen intermingling when it aired a racist commercialshowing a scantily clad white woman telling Rep.Harold Ford Jr. --

Matthew Dallek, a former Democratic speechwriter onCapitol Hill, is the author of "The Right Moment:Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive TurningPoint in American Politics."who's trying to become the state'sfirst African-American senator -- to "call me." AndRepublican Sen. George Allen of Virginia infamously called theonly person of color at a campaign event by the name"macaca" -- a monkey. Allen was clearly using theword as a racial epithet.

Even at the highest levels of American politics,racist undertones still ripple across our campaigns.

While affirmative action is not a panacea, itreaffirms the diversity of American society, furthersthe goal of racial integration and encourages womenand minorities to participate in areas where they arewoefully underrepresented, like math, the sciences and Wall Street. It minimizes the corrosive effects ofracist comments like Allen's and racist commercialslike the RNC's.

Last, we have achieved a rough, righteous consensuson affirmative action -- and now is no time to shatterit. In 1995, President Clinton vowed to "mend it, notend it," using an important speech as then-senioradviser George Stephanopoulos recalled, to "decry thepersistence of discrimination [and] defend affirmativeaction as a crucial tool in the struggle for equalopportunity."

In 2003, a rather conservative SupremeCourt essentially ratified that formula. In a landmarkcase involving the University of Michigan Law School,the Court ruled that race could be used as a "plus"factor in college admissions.

Both Clinton's speechand the Court's decision honored and upheld a policythat millions of Americans consider reasonable andvalid. Even our current socially conservative presidentrefused to use affirmative action as a wedge issue inhis 2004 re-election campaign.

In the end, Americans understand that affirmativeaction deepens the country's commitment to overcomingcenturies of racism and discrimination against women,blacks and other minorities. It stands in the shadowof the Emancipation Proclamation, the 19th Amendmentgiving women the right to vote, and the Civil Rightsand Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965.

Affirmative action has for more than three decadeseffectively countered discrimination and broughtAmericans closer to the goal of one America.Proposition 2 deserves to be defeated.

Matthew Dallek, a former Democratic speechwriter onCapitol Hill, is the author of "The Right Moment:Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive TurningPoint in American Politics."